My two cents:
- Your "technically' AZEO right now but your individual utilization on the Cap One card is 62% and your aggregate utilization is >31.4% (If the Amex does not report CL). This implies there are points to be had by paying down the Cap One card
- Once you pay the Cap One card to below $470 (8.9%) you should get a nice score boost (assuming you keep all other cards at $0) because your individual utilization will have come down three thresholds and your aggregate utilization by two thresholds
- I think there might be a threshold once your "time since negative" hits 24 months. I experienced approximately an 8-10 point increase when my most recent late hit 24 months and I could not attribute it to anything else
- I think that if you do the following, you'll be about as optimized as possible in 6 months. To the point that you'll see little if any score increases between months 7-12 (unless you will cross an AAoA threshold)
- don't apply for any new credit
- pay your Cap One to below 8.9% utilization (while keeping other cards at $0)
- wait until your time since last late >24 months
@Anonymous wrote:Caardvark Thank You
Your response seems to be a pretty fine point summary.
So basically, I will see the most significant bump in 6 months. (Keeping all cards at $0 and one card reporting 8..9%) Yes. However, bear in mind your one card that reports must be no higher than 8.9%. It can be any amount under 8.9%, as long as it is not $0. (could be $20)
And anything subsequent to that, will be little to none? When my date of first delinquency (May 2013) hit's 7 years, will that not be a significant increase either? In my experience, I saw little to no score increases from 18 months "time since negative" through 24 months "time since negative." I did see a gain at 24 months which I can't attribute to anything else. Similarly, I didn't really see any noteworthy gains after 24 months until my "time since negative" was around 4 years.
That said, I am not an expert on all the nuance of FICO scoring so, I may have missed something. Also, my file may have been considered thin so, this could have contributed.
Hopefully, @BrutalBodyShots and/or @Revelate will chime in as they are far and away much more intelligent on FICO nuance than I am (and both have experience w/dirty scorecards as you an I have).
You definitely could see an additional boost in May 2020 when the DOFD is 7 years old. However, this assumes all of your lates were in a continuous string starting at that date. If so, then YES! you'd very likely see a significant additional boost.
BUT, if your late payments were not all continuos, you may not see an increase in May 2013. Here's an example --> Say you had late payments starting in May 2013, caught up your payments in January of 2014, and fell behind again in February of 2014; only the late payments from 5/2013-12/2013 would come off in May 2020. The string of late payments beginning 2/2014 would have their own DOFD and would not fall off until 2/2021.
My understanding is that it's a commonly held belief that once you have a couple of lates on your file, you've taken the brunt of the scoring hit. additional late payments (#3, #4, #5, etc) have very little, if any, additional score penalty.
Also, side note.....does anyone know if I can do a product change on my American Express Gold Card? Because it doesnt report my credit limit. At first I had no limit, but was eventually put on a $1,500 limit. Can I do a product change to something that wont require a hard pull?